Today’s Executive Column guest is Wondwossen Tegegn. At this point in time, he is the Executive Manager of the Ambassador Hotel found around the Millennium Hall. He had passed through many twists and turns before he crowned his push for a better life with a success story. He knows the art of hotel hospitality like the back of his hand. In the past, life was an uphill battle and a bitter pill to swallow for him. But as he believes in the life principle taking the bull by the horn, he managed to emerge from the bitter battle of life with a crown of success.
Could you tell us a little about your childhood days?
To begin with, I was born and raised in a small town known as Alage located in Ilu Ababora province. As destiny would have it, when I was seven, my dad went to meet his maker. After he breathed his last, I lived with my mother under the same roof until I became eleven. Later as things proved harrowing as poverty put its heavy weight on us, I made up my mind to go to Metu, the former capital of Ilu Ababora with the purpose of living with my promiscuous uncle.
At that specific point, my half brother was living under the same roof with us. Honestly speaking, living peacefully with my peevish uncle’s wife was easier said than done. She was constantly giving me a hard time. She was a real pain in the neck. Though I did not give up hope, I was cursing my luck time and again.
As the situation of my uncle’s wife kept on falling from the bad to worse my half-brother and I came to a decision to be street urchins and work around the clock determined of making somebody out of us no matter what the cost may be. At some point, we left the house of our uncle for good and ended up joining the street of Metu at a stroke of a pen. I was twelve years old.
What was the next move?
Almost immediately, I started working as a laborer, errand boy and shoeshine in addition to getting myself involved in washing clothes, shoeshining and other
related aspects. I kept on attending classes and shining shoes on shift basis. Every so often I was fighting with the biting cold. To tell the truth, the whole lot was not that easy. I was simply passing the night on the street fighting with the freezing cold.
Every now and then, I passed the night at different people’s residential house helping them with washing dishes, cooking, and what have you. To be honest, I met a kind-hearted person named Gebyew Eliyas. He was constantly helping me as a real father, brother and friend. I was infinitely happy in that regard.
What happened then?
When Gebyew Elias was thrown into prison due to unforeseen reasons, I headed straight to Jimma and kick started attending grade twelve. As I was thinking of quite a lot of things and struggling with life challenges over and over again, my school leaving result (ESLCE) was not that good. I could not make my dream become a reality. My heart was broken to the extent that I could not express it in words. At a loss what to do, I went to Gambella and joined Agricultural Mechanization Service. The working environment was by a long way good.
Be that as it may, I kept on studying hard with free mind with the intention of retaking the ESLCE and scored a good grade and thus I came to Addis Ababa and joined the Hotel and Tourism College. It is this way; I joined the world of hospitality.
Where did you embark on working?
At the start, I became apprentice at Imperial Hotel. As I was a hardworking person, I was attracting the attention of all and sundry in the blink of an eye. As I was a workaholic person my performance was beyond description. Hence, all eyes were on me. As I proved myself successful, I was hired there on part-time basis. I was paid thirty birr per day. Though I did not know what the future holds
in store for me, I went on working by the sweat of my brow for the love of making ends meet and standing on my feet.
How long did you stay in Imperial Hotel?
As I was dreaming of becoming a successful person in life, I did not sit down binding my hand and foot. Day and night, I kept on hunting for a better job. For this reason, I set in motion working successfully in a Chinese Wall Cafe as a supervisor. After some months, I joined Crown Hotel on a fulltime basis. At that specific juncture, my salary was 150 Birr. I was doing a great job time and again. After that I joined a Korean specialized Restaurant. I was working as a supervisor there.
I would say, I was an influential person. To the surprise of everyone, a Korean man who was responsible for running the restaurant did not like my influential power radiating from my performance at all. One fine day, the man fired me saying, “It is obvious that you are a successful and an influential person in this restaurant. But I am not happy about that.” After he explained the whole lot in black and white, he sent me off once and for all giving me an extra one month salary.
Subsequently, I headed straight to South Wello and joined GRE Children’s Village. It was a humanitarian organization. They were giving humanitarian aids for orphans. As there was a hotel school which was opened for the orphans, I started offering training on Hotel and Tourism. In due course, following my successful journey, I was sent to Hilton Hotel targeting at taking training on Hotel Management.
At the end of the day, I began teaching at Emmanuel Hotel School and served there for a year. Afterwards, I had worked in a range of areas in my profession in addition to organizing a wide spectrum of restaurants and hotels in most part of the capital. Furthermore, I have served as a consultant, trainer, manager in various hotels and restaurants.
By the same token, I headed straight to South Sudan, Juba and served in Queen of Sheba Restaurant as a Manager for a year. It was opened in partnership by an Ethiopian and a South Sudanese. More often than not, I work for seventeen hours a day. At that point, my salary was 2000 USD. As a matter of fact, I was earning more than the stated amount seeing that I got various incentives. Moreover, I was offering a consultation service there. As I had a child from my girl friend, I returned to Ethiopia. I proved myself to be successful and influential there too.
The instant I came back to Ethiopia, I opened a Hotel Consultation Center called Seven Stars Ethiopia on the fourth floor of Getu Commercial Center. My focus was not making profit but getting to the bottom of problems revolving around the hotel and tourism industry. I was attaching significance to giving quality service time and again. I was recruiting professionals for hotels and training them apart from helping them assigned in the right place. I was in the habit of carrying out the right path of recruitments. As time passed by, as I was not able to bear fruit, I ended up closing the center.
I had partook in organizing the Paradise Lodge of Arba Minch. Having served as a Deputy Manager at Haile Resort found in Hawassa, I headed straight to Baro Gambella Hotel and worked there as a manager.
Then I came to Addis Ababa and opened Seven Glory Consultancy. The office is still rendering service. I have worked for the past twenty two years in the profession. I have a diploma in Hotel and Tourism, a degree in Hotel Management from National Aviation College. At this point in time, winning scholarship I am doing my master’s degree online in Hotel Hospitality in one of the renowned universities found in America—Central Field University America.
The Ethiopian Herald June 30, 2019
BY ADDISALEM MULAT and MUSSA MUHAMMED
